Monthly Archives: July 2012

Yesterday (July 29 2012 ) was a day to remember! I sighted my first spyhopping Orca whale! An adult spy-hopped and all I could see was white! It was crazy! I was lucky enough to get some footage of a baby spyhopping next to mum. (which I will try and post a link to at some point…) I also got some footage of mum and baby doing tail slaps! See a short video clip:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/46594289 w=398&h=294]

After a busy day of watching the orcas foraging… I was lucky enough to see a humpback breaching on the Johnstone Strait! It breached about 4x in a row and I was lucky enough to capture a clip on video!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/46601861 w=403&h=297]

The evening was amazing with a pink sunset and the A11′s foraging by the hut. Momoko and I heard the A11′s calling above the water! Their calls echoed through Blackney pass and the Johnstone Strait very loud and clear… there were no boats in the area so absolutely no boat noise. It was a very special moment.

A photo of the evening sky just before the pink sunset (which I captured on video…)

It feels like heaven out here on CP (West Cracroft Island – Cracroft Point) which is located on the Johnstone Strait. Paul Spong drove me out here in “the car” with all of my camera gear on July 24th 2012:

Dr. Paul Spong – The founder of OrcaLab – July 24th 2012

I am posted at CP with Momoko from Japan. She will be posted out here with me for the last week of July and then I will have a new assistant in weekly rotations. We arrived on July 24th and it is officially our third day living in the hut on the Johnstone Strait. See a photo of Momoko doing dishes below:

Momoko on July 24th at CP

The afternoon we arrived on July 24th – we had 2 humpbacks greet us and then shortly after that we had a family of orcas come through. They were foraging and I took some nice photos. I love the mum and baby shots that I took. I recorded audio of the orcas as well. I hope to post a link to it soon.

Mum and Baby of the A30′s in Johnstone Strait July 24thBaby orca of the A30′s foraging with mum and family on the Johnstone Strait July 24th

Today we were awakened by 2 humpbacks blowing right in front of our hut at CP just after 6am (July 26th). See photo of our hut:

We attended the 10 year Springer Reunion at Telegraph Cove. We had a booth set up representing OrcaLab there July 13-15th. We played audio recordings of orca calls and also sold CD’s of Springer’s own vocalizations of when she first was reunited with her pod. There were a lot of people attending the event who were instrumental in the rehabilitation process and in reuniting Springer with her pod back in 2002.

Paul Spong with assistants Momoko, Kirsty and Krissi on a beautiful sunny day on Hanson Island – July 18th 2012

On board the June Cove on route to CP (Cracroft Point on West Cracroft Island ) on July 19th where we cleaned, sanded and painted the deck with a great view of the Johnstone Strait. We watched two male Orcas of the A36 matriline (Kaikash, A46; Plumper, A37) for a couple of hours foraging.

Kaikash foraging in front of CP:

A young humpback was seen breaching in front of the lab around 8:30am on July 23. Krissi, Natalie and Momoko watched in amazement as it breached over and over again. Momoko later identified the young humpback as Galaxy in the 2012 version of “Humpbacks of the Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait area ID Catalogue.”

We are looking forward to the rest of the summer season here at OrcaLab. Bring on the whales!

The 2012 Season Begins

July 11, 2012 – Post by Natalie

We, the assistants, have arrived on Hanson Island for the summer of 2012. We first bonded by going on a hike on Hanson Island to a little cove called Dong Chong Bay. We were awed by the beautiful old cedar tree that OrcaLab has named “Grandmother cedar” which we passed along the way.

Grandmother Cedar

Hanson Hike

Some of us have enjoyed sleeping out on the deck of the Lab and have gone to sleep with the moonlight shining and the humpbacks blowing in the distance. I awoke to an amazing pink, yellow and orange sunrise on the morning of July 10th.

Orcas calling upon sunrise

We have been cleaning and organizing our camp kitchen for the season and Phinn, from England, has painted a lovely orca on our new storage shelf.

Phinn the Artist

Leah has given us all a tour of CP – Cracroft Point which is located on West Cracroft Island. This is where I will be stationed for the bulk of the summer season. I will be capturing footage, (filming and taking photos), of the whales in Johnstone Strait. This footage will be used in “An Orca Whale Documentary” as well as used to support OrcaLab. Photo below, Orcas – photo taken from CP – July 10th

CP

A34s heading west past CP

We have been on 3 hour shift rotations in the Lab listening to the hydrophones and recording the beautiful calls of the orcas. Kristen is on her morning shift and looking in the distance for blows on the morning of July 7th.

Early morning Lab shift – Kristen

Paul is from Germany. He caught this Greenling off of Kurt’s Point and we enjoyed it for dinner on July 7th. He also caught fish for dinner on July 10th. See photo below of Paul cooking the fish in the main house.